Kay Ryan Wins 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry

Posted on April 18, 2011

Kay Ryan has won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her poetry collection, The Best of It: New and Selected Poems. Kay Ryan was appointed as U.S. Poet Laureate in 2008. She held the position for two terms. You can read her bio here on the poetryfoundation.org website.

The two finalists included:

• The Common Man by Maurice Manning (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), which the Pulitzer Prize Board describes as a "rich, often poignant collection of poems rooted in a rural Kentucky experiencing change in its culture and landscape.
• Break the Glass by Jean Valentine (Copper Canyon Press), , which the Pulitzer Prize Board describes as collection of imaginative poems in which small details can accrue great power and a reader is never sure where any poem might lead.